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A Woolly Wonderland @ Unravel

This time last weekend I was immersed in the Woolly Wonderland of Unravel.

It’s the first time I’ve been to this inspiring annual knitting festival at Farnham Maltings – what struck me most was the personal and friendly approach that surrounded the whole event.

Around the venue were hundreds of luggage tags where you could leave your own knitting message of “I knit because….” to share with fellow knitters and yarn enthusiasts.

Even this knitted cactus couldn’t escape!

The ‘Blue Jumper’ installation by Sarah Filmer was a perfect place to start-up conversations. It was a great community space where you could simple pop along, knit or purl a few stitches and then leave your yarn and needles hanging in mid-air for someone else to pick up. So far over 1,100 people have helped to create this textile sculpture.

The Marketplace at Unravel consisted of 7 rooms of scrummy skeins, hanks and balls of yarn, much is locally and ethically sourced. Corrie over at Plutonium Muffins has written a lovely post capturing the atmosphere.

Being able to touch the yarns and try out something new was so appealing – here’s my attempt at Big Knitting on Ingrid Wagner’s stall.

I even managed to find some yarn on the Texere stall that carried my first name – I said the event was personal didn’t l!

I think my favourite thing about the show was meeting three of my ‘Yarn Hero’s’. Kerry Lord (Yarn Hero!) from Toft let me prod and poke her ‘Edwards Menagerie’ collection to get a better understanding of how much toy stuffing the animals needed. Bridget the Elephant is one of my WIP – more about her soon.

Rachel Coopey (Yarn Hero!) of Coop Knits was superb – she was at her stand working on a cute pair of mini-socks when I asked about her prefered method of sock knitting. Without hesitation, right there and then Rachel taught me the basics of magic loop knitting and shared some ‘top-tips’ for getting started with socks.

My final ‘Yarn Hero’ of Unravel was Louise Walker of Sincerely Louise faux taxidermy fame. I was lucky enough to book a space on her 2 hour workshop to create my very own knitted creature (pop back soon to see how my cute creature turned out). I’m totally in awe of Louise’s tutoring style. Somehow Louise managed to knit, chat and relax with us all as she serenely moved around the room with her yarn tucked under her arm.

Here’s one of Louise’s finished pieces.

To try to keep the Unravel vibe going for a bit longer, I would love to know why you knit / crochet / stitch etc, please share your reasons via the comment box.

I knit for sooo many reasons, I’d hate to pick just one and I’d be here all day listing my reasons if I told you them all. Looks like a fab event. Especially love the wool sculpture, what a great idea to get everyone to add a bit!.

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